Button.



M. MELZER.

BUTTON. A

APPLIOATION FILED JULY 2s, 1911.

1,088,835. Patented Mar. 3, 1914.

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cotton crotcheted buttons, when washed, re-

MAX MELZER, or BUcHHoLz, GERMANY,

YORK,

ASSIGNOR TO SIGMUND BASCH, 0F NEW N. Y.

BUTTON;

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 3, 1914.

Application led July 28, 1911. `Serial No. 641,058.

To all 'whom it may concern 13e it known that I, MAX Manzana, a subjectof the German Emperor, and a resident of Buchholz, Saxony, Germany, havemade a new and useful Invention in Buttons, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to the manufacture of a new form of buttonclosely resemblingl in appearance a crocheted button of the peculiarconstruction and .manufacture hereinafter more fully set forth.

In the drawings all views being on a greatly enlarged scale, Figure 1illustrates the side view of one form of the buttons and Fig. 2 a topview thereof. Figs. 3 and 4 illustrate the cotton foundation for thebutton and Fig. 5 is an enlarged view showing the threads used and theirrelation to each other in the finished covering for the form* dation.Fig. 6 is a section on lines 6-6 of Fig. 2.

Ordinary buttons of the general character to which those of thisapplication relate have been made by hand, the foundation consisted of aperforated wooden disk or ball and the covering for the foundations ofthis nature were crocheted upon them by hand work. In some cases, thefoundation was made of cotton, but in those eases they were simply lumpsof cotton, havingno central opening like the wooden disks or balls. Thecrocheted wooden buttons could not be readily washed, although the fact`that hand labor was employed in making them, made a preliminary washingthereof essential. The

mained soggy and never had that appear ance of freshness which a newmanufactured article should have. Many attempts were made to producecrocheted buttons by machinery but the looms which can produce crochetedwork are incapable of applying such .work to an irregularly shaped body,whether of cotton, wood, or other material. I, therefore, abandoned theidea of making crocheted buttons by machinery as an impossibility andstudied to producea button which, although not crocheted, would have allthe advantages of a machine manufactured product and at the same timecreate the effect of a lcrocheted button. After many experiments, Idiscovered that I could produce a crocheted effect by selecting certainpeculiar types of thread and weaving them together in the ordinarymanner, and

that I could in this way produce a button closely resembling a crochetedbutton and havingall the advantages of the hand crochcted buttons and inaddition thereto, certain additional advantages of great importance inthis art. The fundamental consideration upon which my invention is basedis that I use a substantially invisible series of threads as thefoundation or warp threads and a twisted visible thread as the weftthread. The fabric thus woven upon a suitable foundation so that thelines of the twisted threads will be diagonal as shown in Fig. l, willproduce the effect of a hand crocheted button, and being produced bywell known machinery, canbe applied to the foundation with great ease. l

In the preferred form of my invention, I employ a `foundation such as isshown in Figs. 3 and a, which consists of a compressed cotton diskhaving a central aperture. Naturally the disk may assume other formswhich are equally suitable to the formation of these new buttons. Forsome purposes, the compressed cotton contains a mixture of some suitablematerial which, when the cotton is moistened, will cause the button tobecome hard upon drying. Portland cement or plaster of Paris areexamples of such suitable materials. A great many of such substances areknown and for that reason no particular substance is selected aspreferable. "When such a hydraulic cement is used, the button has theadvantage of being capable of attachment to a garment by means of asewing machine, the entire structure being soft and affording noobstruction to the needle. After the garment has been washed, thebuttons are all hard, in which condition they remain thereafter.

In the drawings, the foundation is designated as 0. This foundation maybe made of compressed cotton or it may be otherwise shaped to the properform by rolling up a portion of the cotton spirally and then pressingit, or otherwise molding it in place. Many other methods of forming thisfoundation may be employed.

As will be seen from Fig. 5, the weaving of the threads a and b isconducted in such manner that the relatively thin parallel invisibleweft threads a will form a continuous diagonal line, whereas in thepreferred form, the relatively thick glossy, twisted threads b are sowoven that each apparently continuous diagonal line thereof is composedof a number of threads; thus, the thread Z has a visible portion e inthe diagonal line f and its next visible portion will be g in thediagonal line it; this peculiar effect is brought about by theemployment of a fine thread which follows the apparent line ofdiagonalism produced by the thick threads. This fine thread i running asit does over the warp thread a but alternately under successive threadsb, becomes entirely covered by the threads Y) so that no portion f it isvisible. Nevertheless, it serves to hold the thick threads in theirproper position upon the button so as to produce the effect ofapparently diagonal thick lines, which look as if they were formed of acontinuous thread, but which, in fact, are formed of visible Vunit'seach from a different thread. These threads are closely woven upon thefoundation so that they will sink into the surface of the foundationwhich thus acts as a fairly rigid support for the covering. If thecovering is removed from these buttons, the foundation, even though itbe composed of compressed cotton, will be found to show the indentavtions where the covering threads have rested upon them. Having formedthe foundation, I apply to it the covering shown in F ig. 5. In thatfigure the threads a are what I call the invisible threads and in thepreferred form, I use a series of three or four of such threads parallelto each other for each warp thread, as clearly shown in Fig. 5. Thetwisted or weft thread I) passes alternately under and over the weftthreads and being relatively thick and shiny, such threads are thethreads which produce the optical effect. The combination of this methodof weaving and of the size and gloss of the threads and their twistedcondition are, to my mind, responsible for the effect produced by thcbutton as a whole. The ends of the woven fabric are retained in placewithin the opening in the foundation c, as shown in Fig. G.

The finished button being entirely made by machinery is a clean andattractive structure capable of being fed to the work in connection withwhich tthey are to be used by machinery and capable of being fastenedthereto by a sewing machine, in which respect they diier essentiallyfrom the wooden foundation crochet buttons of the prior art. The needleof the sewing machine is intended to pass through that portion of thefabric which is contained within the hollow opening of the foundation,but even if the needle passes through the foundation itself, the effectwill not be marred. Needless to say the cost of production of suchbuttons as compared with hand crocheted buttons is exceedingly small.wWith these but* tons, Il am enabled to supply the full demand forcrocheted buttons, which are a highly appreciated adornment for feminineapparel and which could not possibly be supplied in sufficientquantities by the limited amount of available hand labor.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is: f

1. As a new article of manufacture, a button, having the appearance of acrocheted button, comprising a foundation and a covering composed ofinterwoven thin and thick threads, both sets of threads starting outwardfrom the central portion of the top of the button in a substantiallyradial direction and curving along the upper side of the button inopposite directions to form intersecting spirals, the spirals of thethick threads being longer than those of the thin threads.

2. As a new article of manufacture a button, having` the appearance of aicrocheted button, comprising a foundation of soft yielding materialhaving a central opening and a covering composed of interwoven thin andthick threads both sets of threads being concentrated in said centralopening, the threads passing out from said central opening in asubstantially radial direction and extending over the upper side of thebutton in spiral curves, the thin threads curving in one direction andthe thick threads in another, the spiral of the thick threads beinglonger than that of the thin threads, the thick and thin threadsalternately overlapping to produce a weave such that the visible loopsof adj acentthick threads extend in diagonal lines cutting the curves ofboth sets of threads and invisible threads extending under said loopsalong said diagonal lines.

3. As a new article of manufacture a button, having the appearance of acrocheted button comprising a soft yielding foundation having a centralopening and a covering composed of interwoven thin and thick threadsstarting radially from said central opening and curving spirally overthe upper face of the button the thin threads curving.

in one direction and the thick threads in an opposite direction, thethin threads being arranged in groups, each group alternately passingover and under the thick threads to form a weave resembling crocheting,the loops of the thick threads being arranged in diagonal rows andsingle fine threads passing through said diagonal rows under said thickthreads and over said groups of thin threads so as to remain invisiblefor holding said diagonal loops in position on said foundation.

4. As a new article of manufacture a button,having the appearance of acrocheted button comprising a soft yielding foundation having a centralopening and a covering composed of interwoven thin and thick threadsstarting radially from said central opening and curving spirally overthe upper face of the button the thin threads curving in one directionand the thick threads in an opposite direction, the thin threads beingarranged in groups, each group alternately passing over and under thethick threads to forni a weave resembling crocheting, the loops of thethick threads being arranged in diagonal rows, single fine threadspassing through said diagonal rows under said thick threads and oversaid groups of thin threads so as to remain invisible for holdset myhand in the presence of two subserib- 2C ing witnesses.

MAX MELZER.

Witnesses KURT SIEGLE, SIDNEY RICH.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. C.

